Earth, New York City, A bed and bathroom supply store

 

“I don’t know if this is the right choice to make, do you know what I mean?” An older man with graying hair and a bald patch said as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

 

“You don't need to explain to me, I understand .” A young man replied wearing a button-down shirt and black slacks, his brown hair was gelled and short. “Women aren’t that different from us, they want all of the same things and have the same emotions. With that in mind, you can trust me when I say that this is the best option for you.”

 

Around them were various mockups of bathrooms that featured sinks, bathtubs, and showers. They were in a department store that sold bedroom, bathroom, and living room furniture. Colorful displays were everywhere to try to attract customers to open the doors to their wallets and let the money flow. The man’s name tag read ‘Ashton’, and he was fresh out of college with all of the hopes and dreams that every young person had.

 

I am being crushed by my student debts and you are spending half an hour of my time asking me questions about toilets?! Do you see the ‘Manager’ title on my badge?! He was one of the various managers who worked under the store manager. He had slaved away like a dog since he had gotten out of college to acquire his position.

 

“My job makes me drink until I throw up most evenings, and my wife has turned to anorexia to achieve her dreams of being able to see the bones in her waist! This toilet is something that we take very seriously!” The man was reluctant.

 

“I chose this toilet because of your specifications, it has foam matting that is easy to clean wrapped around the bottom, and it even comes with one that you can place on the ground. The foam will provide the maximum comfort and support that you need when you are hugging the porcelain after a long night. The foam matting will also help protect both of your knees since you are getting in your advanced years!” Ashton replied with a serious expression. “I take my customers' needs very seriously.”

 

The display they were standing in front of was for a toilet with a peculiar design, it had foam wrapped around the bottom and featured a mirrored design with a pot on both sides and a tank in the middle that was also cushioned.

 

“A normal toilet has a serious flaw in its design, you cannot both take a dump and throw up at the same time without things getting awkward.” Ashton pointed at the strange toilet on display that he was trying to sell. “This toilet has a feature that almost no other toilet has, not only can it be used in tandem with another person who needs to go, but you can also use it to both shit and throw up at the same time! It is revolutionary!” 

 

This thing is fucking ridiculous, it's more worthless than the shit it gets rid of! This thought passed through his mind as he kept eyeing the large toilet. Why did they add these ridiculous things to our sales quotas?! I have to sell three of them a month!

 

“We only have one bathroom... and she can take a long time to do anything in there... Alright, I want one!” The man told him seriously.

 

“I can handle it from here, thanks, Ash!” A slightly tall and rotund man told him with a smile on his face.

 

“No, I think it would be better if I gave this to Carley.” He replied respectfully, but he was quickly cut off.

 

“No, I got this. Right, this way sir!” The rotund man said as he began leading the older man away.

 

This action caused some anger to briefly flash across Ashton’s face before he erased it as quickly as it appeared. As a manager he could no longer receive a commission, so he preferred giving his sales to the cashiers instead of the attendants who never seemed to do their jobs. I can’t fire the shits since they are all related to the store manager, oh well. 

 

Watching the two walk away, he was interrupted by a buzz in his ear caused by his radio. “Ashton, I asked you to set up the displays at the front. Why isn’t it done yet?”

 

This voice belonged to a grouchy-sounding man, it was both grating and accusatory at the same time. 

 

“The pallet jack is broken and you want me to set up several pallets of furniture. Am I supposed to carry it all out there myself?” Ashton asked.

 

“You have an attendant and a cashier you can ask to help you! Get it done!” The voice called back angrily.

 

“Carley has palsy, she can’t carry it and Steve has a doctor’s release, I’m the only one who can do it,” Ashton replied.

 

“Then start carrying!” His manager yelled back. “Also, you need to finish the accounting tonight, I don’t care how late you stay, you are on salary anyway! Bahahahaha!”

 

Ashton’s smile became a lot more forced as he saw Steve laughing at him over his shoulder as he walked the man to the front who was buying the toilet he just sold. To add more insult to injury he pressed his radio and sent a message back towards Ashton.

 

“I need a crapper pulled, the SKU number is 987987.” He called and looked at Ashton. 

 

“I’ll get it,” Ashton said flatly, his smile gone.

 

***

A few hours later...

 

“Dammit!” Ashton cursed, as he struggled to pull a shelving unit through a pair of double doors. 

 

The day had ended and he was finishing pulling in all of the items he was forced to move outside by the store manager. Steve, Carley, and the store manager had all gone home and it was just him for the day. Most of the lights were off in the department store, but he would be working on the accounting for several hours. Finishing with the shelving unit, he placed it in a section of the front of the store with the rest of the displays that were various cabinets and their price signs.

 

If Steve’s mother wasn’t a doctor, he would never be able to get off like that! Yet I have to work twice as hard as everyone else. This thought stopped as he thought of the cashier Carley, she was born with cerebral palsy and was very limited in what she could do. Yet, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday she worked as a cashier and kept a smile on her face when everyone ridiculed her for her disability and the way it affected her.

 

Instead, he used her to determine the type of customer he was dealing with and if they treated her poorly when she greeted them then he used that customer to fill his sales quota. While he was in management, he was still expected to get a certain sales target each month. Locking a door with a click, he turned the lights to the main floor off and began walking to the office in the back. He was looking at the various stock on the shelves and the placement of the product.

 

“Steve didn’t stock the shelves before he left, he also didn’t face the product.” Ashton sighed as he stopped to properly face various items on the shelves. This was the process of pulling it forward so there weren't holes or gaps to make the shelves look more full. This was a psychological effect that people experienced when they only saw a few items left, they would hesitate out of fear of depriving others.

 

“I need to sweep again, oh well,” Ashton muttered. The cashier had the job of sweeping the floor at the end of the day, and Carley usually had issues performing this duty. Ashton didn’t mind doing it for her at the end of the day and he didn’t say anything about it. “Dammit! Steve didn’t clean the bathrooms again! I want to fire him!” 

 

Steve’s mother was a doctor and his aunt was married to the store manager; he couldn’t do anything to him even if he wanted to. Ashton had tried going around the store manager once and it almost got him written up for insubordination. This would have ruined his chances of reaching the cushy job of being a store manager. For the last few years that had been his dream since he had to drop out of college because he could no longer afford to go. 

 

Rent, bills, insurance, gas, and all of the other expenses he found drained the pitiful sum his parents left him after they died. He had been premature and they didn’t survive their drive home from the hospital, leaving the young child to be cared for by nurses until he could be moved to a foster family. Too bad many of them were only in it for the large checks they got every month that was supposed to be used for the child’s expenses. 

 

Instead, Ashton went to college and took on large amounts of debt for a business degree he couldn’t use anywhere. It only helped him skip some of the time on the floor and become a manager a few years earlier. Without anyone to help him get a loan he could never start any kind of business and could only rely on a resume filled with all of the odd jobs he had done in high school.

 

“But my golden ticket has finally arrived! I have gotten assigned training on the employee portal, and they just announced they are opening a new store inside the mall!” Ashton had to keep his excitement in check because he was sure that he was going to get promoted to it. 

 

The manager’s office was small, there was an oak desk with fake leather chairs on both sides of it and a safe as tall as a person that the money trays were stored in at the end of the day. Ashton began pulling them out one at a time and started counting the money in the trays and balancing them against the cash register totals. He felt his shoe step on something soft under the desk and rolled the chair out to see a small plastic bag. He reached under the desk and fished it out and held up a used condom in the light and tossed it into the trash nonchalantly.

 

“Usually the store manager is in a much better mood when Lisa is working,” Ashton muttered.

 

He began humming as he squirted some hand sanitizer into his hands and rubbed them together before he got back to counting the money and filling out the deposit sheet for the security company. He soon noticed a problem though and began muttering in frustration.

 

“Shit! The morning shift transferred money out of the drawers to the other ones to make the change!” Ashton cursed. “All of the drawers are messed up! I have to recount everything and balance it all! I bet that bastard knew about it and didn’t say anything!” 

 

He could see his store manager scowling at him and laughing at him in disdain as he told the people at the registers to scramble the money around. The worst part of this prank was that it would take several hours to fix the drawers and get them properly balanced.

 

“I am covering for Monica tomorrow and have to open the store! I am only going to be able to sleep 3 or 4 hours!” Ashton was already exhausted and sweaty from moving the displays and he rested his head on the desk as he closed his eyes. “5 long years… how old am I now? 24… 25… 26… I guess I am 28 now…” 

 

Ashton thought about his classmates he had checked up on using social media, he had worked a part-time job his entire time he was in high school at a sandwich shop selling the worst food in town. It was the only place that would hire someone who came from the local group home. He learned how to sell anything to anyone, as he often had to convince customers that they should buy his food. At the age of 18 whether you finish high school or not you are kicked out of your foster home so he had to save as much as he could. 

 

“Should be able to finish paying my loans in another 20 or 30 years, then I can start saving for retirement. Get an RV and travel the country, then die in it as an old man. They can crush the entire thing with me in it and it can be my coffin.” Ashton closed his eyes and began imagining the small piece of paradise. “Maybe I will find a good girl, one who doesn’t sleep with my boss.” 

 

Lisa and he got along quite well when they first met, they had many things in common. One of those was a love for money and for Lisa this meant that she was willing to do anything to get it. He couldn’t complain since she had helped get him the job in the first place, this was when he realized that he would only date women who were devoted and non-materialistic. His greed and miserliness came from being broke constantly and having to start saving from the time he was a kid.

 

“Start investing... “ Ashton paused as he yawned, then continued. “Get a house... and a new car.”

 

He could see his dream of retiring and being able to do the things he dreamed of like his video games, anime, and manga. There wasn’t enough time to enjoy things if he wanted to be able to retire so he could only watch streams of games and read chapters of manga on his breaks. These small things made his days more bearable, most of them featured female characters who were strong, stoic, and loyal. In his mind he could see a smiling face, he had always had a thing for redheads. 

 

The office was hot and his shirt felt like it was drenched from his sweat, it was sticking to his skin as he lay against the desk tiredly. He was enjoying this sensation when he heard the creak of a door followed by a gasp and something falling to the ground. Before he could raise his head he heard footsteps running on wood and he raised his head and had to pause to stop himself from screaming out.

 

“What in the hell?!” Ashton uttered.

 

The room had changed, he was no longer in the office but a large study that had several rows of bookshelves on two of the walls, it also had a large desk that was made of oaken wood. The chairs were tall and resembled a throne, it was very heavy and he couldn’t move it from the desk. Getting up caused him to knock into the large wooden chair over and something clattered to the ground from his hand.

 

Seeing a metal pipe, he reached down and grabbed it before uttering it out. “Ouch!” He then dropped it on the ground as it burned his hand slightly, then he noticed his hand was covered in blood.  “What is going on here!”

 

Following the hand, he noticed his shirt and pants had changed, he was wearing a white shirt that had ruffles running down the front. The sleeves were tight on his arms and featured golden thread that shone along the seams and several golden buttons on the cuffs. He was wearing black pants that were loose and tight boots that hugged his legs from below the knee to his toes. 

 

“Am I dreaming?” He muttered as he looked back at the burn on his bloody hand, it stung and was starting to blister.

 

Then he looked at the pipe on the ground, but he was having problems seeing it in the dim lighting that was provided by a few torches in their holders on the wall and a large window. He used his foot and the leather boot to kick the pipe out from the desk and what he saw was a flintlock pistol. 

 

“Why was this in my hand?” He said as he reached up and scratched his head, then paused. “More meat and blood? It’s also on the wall…”

 

What the hell kind of dream is this?! No matter how he looked at it, didn’t it look like he had committed suicide? This was made even more ominous by a bloodstained letter that read ‘To Whom It May Concern'' on the front of it. Looking at the gun on the ground, he reached down and lifted it into the light where he could see it better.

 

It had a handle that appeared like it was made of ebony, but it was engraved using gold with a black barrel that had gold damascene(AN: Gold foiling heat pressed onto the metal) inlaid over the metal and wood that depicted a wolf with a Hyena-like grin. These same motifs were on the buttons on his shirt and pants, he even had them pressed into his trousers. The gun had a large hammer offset to the side, but he didn’t know anything else about it except that it looked like something a pirate would own. Then he noticed something on the back of his hands when the light of the torch reflected off of it.

 

“Tattoos?!” Ashton said with shock. 

 

On and between his knuckles letters could be seen that were the same as the ones on the letter alternating in black and gold ink. Across his knuckles on the right hand were the words “DeadMan, and on the right were the words “Walking”. It reminded him of something a thug or a gangster would have gotten back on Earth. Tattoos terrified him because they made it much harder to get a job in the open market if they were in a place that couldn’t be hidden from sight.

 

“This can’t be me?! I have to be dreaming!” Ashton told himself, he could even hear cheering coming from the slightly open door to the study. “Maybe I just need to go there and I can wake up.” 

 

He smiled and ignored what looked like a trenchcoat made from thick black and gray fur that was open in the front and hung over the back of the large chair that was behind the desk. It was the same chair he woke up in. He stepped over a tray that had pancaked on it that was grilled with the same hound motif on them, thick syrup staining the woven carpet that was mosaic in various colors and shapes. The walls of the house were stained a dark gray over the wood, it was a shade he had never seen before.

 

Past the door, he found himself in a hallway, and directly in front of him was a window that looked down over a garden. Short grass grew and several fruit trees bearing apples dotted the garden with grapes growing on vines as well as hedges and bushes. Flowers in all kinds of shades of red, white, black, and yellow filled the garden and provided a calming fragrance to the yard. Various furniture was positioned under awnings and several gazebos were placed in strategic locations.

 

The furniture was all hardwood with thick cushions and he could see gardening tools laying on the ground with baskets that were partially filled with grapes. Wooden furniture made from hardwood was dotted around the garden to provide sitting locations. They were along walkways made of thick dark granite that shone in the sunlight and revealed white veins inside of them. Gold flakes had been added to the granite that caused the sunlight to sparkle off of them and made the garden appear more magical.

 

Brooms made from wicker, mops made from thick cloth, and dusters made from large feathers were discarded on the ground and the floor of the hallway. He couldn’t smell any of the chemicals that he was used to and everything had a floral fragrance that was provided by vases of flowers along the hallways. The flowers were all done in black and yellow, it seemed to match the black and gold icon of the smiling wolf that was hung on the wall using various banners. Torches hung along the wall where the light from the large windows did not reach and a brass molded ceiling shone and helped reflect the light. 

 

The mosaic patterns on the carpet were primarily done in yellow and black, with red and purple mixed in to add more color and contrast. He was certain they even used gold threading along the edges of the carpet due to the shine it produced under the torchlight. Ashton had never seen such opulence anywhere in his entire life, even the floor was made of polished hardwood underneath the thick hand-woven carpet. Reaching the end of the hallway and counting close to ten different doors, he pushed open a set of double doors and saw a scene that took his breath away.

 

A large group of people wearing a variety of clothes were celebrating as they ate large amounts of different foods off of a massive wooden table. There were maids with tails and ears that looked like they came right out of some of the anime that he watched. He could also see elves, dwarves, gnomes, beastmen, and beastkin. All of them looked relieved like they had finally reached the end of a nightmare.

 

A smile crossed his face as the atmosphere of the celebration was incredibly infectious, no one seemed to be paying attention to the walkway that ran along the upper floor. Large windows ran along the outside of the foyer that allowed the people eating inside of it to look out into the garden and the smell from it was drifting in. The sights, the smells, and the atmosphere were something he had only seen in fantasy weddings when everyone was celebrating.

 

The sound of a plate shattering could be heard which caused some of the workers to turn towards the culprit. There were maids, gardeners, servants, and stable hands who worked at the estate, all of them had thick shackles around their necks with arcane runes etched in. The one who dropped the plate was a gnome who stood knee-high and had a thick mustache with a bald head. He looked like he had seen a ghost as he slowly raised his finger and pointed it at Ashton who was just starting to come down the stairs, causing him to pause.

 

The various workers all saw a man who stood at 6 foot(213CM) with oily black hair that shone in the light and hung down past his ears. A dried patch of blood hung on both sides of his head and a smile hung on his face that looked like it was mocking all of the celebrating slaves. Many other plates and utensils began to fall before many of the people in the hall started falling to their knees and some began sobbing brokenly. 

 

“He is going to kill us all!” A catkin maid with black ears and white hair cried and curled into a ball.

 

“Please spare my child! Darlene! Put that down now and beg Lord Grayfield for mercy!” One of the dark elven cooks screamed and started crawling towards her daughter who was so scared she had wet herself where she stood.

 

“It’s no use… we’re all going to die!” A dwarven man wearing a servant's garb reached for a knife on the table and turned it on himself, but the moment it got close to his body the collar on his neck emitted a shock which caused him to lose control of his body and the knife.

 

Most of the people in the hall acted similarly as if their world was ending when Ashton entered the foyer. The smile on his face was twitching and he placed his hand on the banister and had to jerk it away. Looking at it he could see the burn he had received when he grabbed the barrel of the gun. This caused him a shock as he finally realized that the pain was too intense to be something happening in a dream.

 

What happened? Where am I?! WHAT’S GOING ON!  Ashton was beginning to panic as many voices began begging him for mercy.